Fun time at the Chop House tonight. An awful lot of you were there, and everybody seemed to have a good time. Even though I had to work, I did too.

That team meant a lot to people, and I’d be a cyborg if I said it doesn’t to me too. That was my first year covering a pro team. Everything was new, exciting, fresh. So many memories. I still remember that very first game, a preseason game in Cornwall, Ontario, between the Avs and Canadiens. It didn’t seem real, sitting there in the press box of the Cornwall Aces, 2,000 miles from Denver, watching a team that just a few months before didn’t exist. Several months later, everybody was in Miami, watching this strange new team lift the Stanley Cup. How did that happen?

I’ve learned the following: all but two players will be in Denver Oct. 6 and 7 for the Avalanche’s reunion of the 1995-96 Stanley Cup team – Denver’s first major pro championship team.

Those two players are Sandis Ozolinsh and Chris Simon. They desperately want to be on hand, but both are still playing in Russia’s KHL and their teams wouldn’t let them leave during that time (boo).

Also, coaches Marc Crawford, Joel Quenneville and Jacques Cloutier will be on hand as well. This is going to be a very special time for them and the fans (and me, since I covered that team and obviously remember it fondly, being my first year covering the NHL).

There will be a private dinner among the ’96 Cup team and the current Avs team (Adam Foote will have to shuffle back and forth I guess) on Oct. 6. While the public can not buy tickets to attend this private dinner, the Avs are planning to have a “red carpet” area into the building, where fans can snap pictures and get autographs. More details on where the dinner is and what time will be forthcoming soon, so stay tuned.

This is something I’ll do from time to time, dusting off an old Avs game on VHS from the basement and popping it in, and offering commentary.

Call it time capsule beat writing. About a year ago, a gift of about 500 Avalanche games from the past – all on VHS – was given to me. So, when I play them here, it’s for the first time ever. Most or all of these games, I was at, watching from the press box. Never saw them on TV.

Today’s first installment is an April 3, 1996, regular-season game between the Blues and Avs, from McNichols Sports Arena.

As of this writing, I can’t remember if I was even there for this game. I’ll check in the Post’s archives later on that, but for now here’s a look back with me, as the tape plays:

We have the St. Louis feed, which back then was called “Prime Sports”. Ken Wilson does the play-by-play and Joe Micheletti is the color guy for the Blues, and Bruce Affleck (no relation to Ben or Casey) is the rinkside reporter. Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.